I’m looking for a recommendation on a car shipping company. It’s difficult to sort the good from the bad in this market without recommendations from people you trust. The car needs to go from Louisiana to North Carolina.
I was considering having my GTI shipped from Florida but ultimately I decided to just spend more and make it a fun road trip. But when I was researching it, I used uship to get carriers, then I just googled the carrier to see if the reputation is good.
I see bad things about Dependable Auto Shippers on lots of forums so maybe avoid them.
yes Dependable auto shippers is the absolute worst.
about 10 years ago i moved from NJ to CO. and i dropped my WRX with them in NJ. thing was fully built and had about 1000 miles on a rebuilt trans. I drove it down to them a few days before i left. said it would arrive in 2 weeks. called 3 later and they said it wont move out of the spot i had left it in. funny thing was is it had 15 more miles on it from when i dropped it off. they had completely grenaded the trans. they must have been joyriding and ended up shifting down instead of up.
ended up waiting 3 months for the car to arrive. and a long battle took place. nothing good came of it.
stay away.
Hansen’s forwarding is good.
Hansen’s Vehicle Relocation does shipping across North America ( https://www.lhf.com/ ). I’ve never dealt with them except for quotes, but for price comparison, here’s the quotes I got from them in May 2015. I was selling a 2002 S6 wagon and I just wanted to know what it would cost to ship the vehicle if the buyer wasn’t local. All quotes are in Canadian dollars, include base price, Fuel Surcharge, and local taxes:
Edmonton to Vancouver $507.15
Edmonton to Toronto $1485.52
Calgary to Toronto $1410.66
Edmonton to Quebec City $1737.05
Edmonton to LA $2672.29
Edmonton to New York $2913.70
Edmonton to Miami $2755.72
Another negative review for Dependable Auto Shippers. I used them twice, once by choice and once not, and both times my vehicle arrived damaged. Then they’re a huge pain in the ass when you try to get them to fix what they damaged. Avoid at all costs.
Why not drive it? Thats not a long drive at all. Hell if it costs more than a grand ill consider doing it for you to make some money lol.
Car is not street legal, track-prepped E30
Haha, just saw this signature on another forum:
“=-----> DO NOT SHIP W/DAS (DEPENDABLE AUTO SHIPPERS)!! <----=”
makes it even more fun lol. now i understand.
I’ve got to start looking for someone decent to ship between Toronto and Miami. Recommendations welcome.
I’d consider the drive, but I can’t afford any chance of tickets and I’m realistic about my ADHD and inability to stick within 10 mph of the speed limit on long, boring interstate runs.
What car?
I think the problem is the border. You may find that doubles the price and quadruples the aggro. Drive to niagara falls, USA (40 minutes) and ship it from there.
Frankly if consider just buying a car down there and leaving it there (unless it’s an exotic or something). If you’re there enough, buy a B8 S4 or an e90 m3 or something. It wont depreciate much if you’re not hammering it with kms and the frictional costs (taxes etc) are nothing like we pay here.
Which city in LA? I’ve got an account with centraldispatch and could look up rates for you. It’s much cheaper than what retail customers pay and I can see company’s rating. I’ve only dealt with 100% rated companies. Also, you want it transported in enclosed trailer or open is fine? Enclosed is more expensive for obvious reasons.
I have to get a Canadian registered S65 back up to Ontario since it’s time for e-test. It may not go back, likely somewhere along the lines of thinking you have. BTW to register a car in FL, it’s 6% tax if it’s from Canada.
Seasonally, there may be an exotic that will make the trip for the winter and back. Would be good to find a good carrier.
When I was doing this I found its a weird business. The majority of the shipping companies don’t do any shipping. They’re just brokers. They then find truckers to do the work.
You pay 1600, broker takes 400, trucker gets 1200
The truckers are almost entirely independent. It’s not like ‘AAA car shipping’ has trucks that are branded etc.
So it’s mostly luck of the draw on the trucker himself.
Anyway good luck. It will be much easier to find a good company (broker) if you make niagara falls the drop point.
Intercity Lines is the best, if you want it on a covered carrier, on a direct route, without loading/unloading at transfer depots. They transport concours cars and such.
For a corporate move across Canada (Ontario to Alberta) I was quite happy with how Turbo Auto Transport handled my Avant. It was covered and they had a Lambo and Ferrari in the same truck…which was HUGE. I can’t comment on pricing since I didn’t pay for any of it.